This year we were fortunate, as the
school we used for the clinic was walking distance (about 1 mile/1.6 kilometers)
from the hotel. We were able to cut down on clinic expenses by not having to
rent a bus to transport us to the clinic site and back. Those people unwilling
to walk were able to take a taxi for three Nicaraguan cordobas (about 20 cents)
each. This year the school was like no other we had seen in the past. This was
actually a pre-university school. It was far larger and more developed than we
expected. There was a large indoor auditorium where our eyeglasses and
wheelchairs were dispensed. A cafeteria was available for our lunch break. There
was a library (with quite a few books) where our dental clinic operated, though
there was some open space there—the team did not work between the stacks. There
were more than enough classrooms for all of our examiners to work. There was a
gate at the entrance to the clinic that was manned by the national police, which
we used to monitor patient flow. Our pharmacy was in a little nook between the
exam rooms and the entrance/exit, and looked a little bit like a bar.Read more of
Juan Carlos' Mission Report

The 2003 Volunteer Optometrists at our
mission site in Jinotepe, Nicaragua. To see all of the photos for this grouping,
click here.

For your information, Jinotepe is the capital of the Carazo division (or state)
of Nicaragua. Carazo is home to approximately 175,000 people, and takes up about
1000 square kilometers (roughly 370 square miles.) It is in the western part of
Nicaragua, which is more fertile and densely populated than the rest of the
country. You can read more about it (in Spanish only, unfortunately) at
http://www.manfut.org/carazo/jinotepe.htmlRead more of Juan Carlos' Mission
Report

Submitted Photos:Photos submitted by 2003
VOSH travelers will be utilized on appropriate pages throughout the site.
As well as being seen elsewhere, they can be seen in Photo Credit Galleries:Jonathan Wasserstein
Photo Credit Gallery